THE AISNE COUNTRY

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 10

THE AISNE COUNTRY

HEAVY DAMAGE OF "WAR.

FACTORIES RUINED AND MACHINES SMASHED.

Owing to the faot that the Department of Aisne has been the scene of some of the most eevere fighting of the war, extensive damage has been inflicted upon its cities. It was not until -the Germans had reached the extreme southern end of the department that the allied troops stopped their advance, and' in driving the enemy back fighting took place over a considerable portion of its B The historic names of Chateau Thierry, SJenlis Soiseons, the Jfarae, the Aisne, St. Quentin, Laon, and the famous Chemin des Dames are all found in the Department of Aisne, and each of the places or rivers to which -they belong bears the marks of destruction that will require many years of patient work to restore. According to E-aillens's Faote About Franco * the population of ike department in ISOS was 534,495 inhabitants, the agflcultural population being 405,000. The average density of the population is exactly Hint ot France—namely, 73 inhabitants per square kilometre. The capital is Loon, with lo,<£So inhabitants. Of the department's total area, the larger portion is agricultural land, the chief products beinj oereale, and the department exports 270,000 quarters of wheat yearly. Cotton and wool tissues aie the staple industries of St. Quentin, Boh am, and JN'ouviou while Fresnoy-le-Grand manufactures Bilk Shawls, Bilk gauze and thread St Gobain turns out 5.500,000 square feet of plat* glass, which is about one-th.rd of the total .European production. The works of &t. Gobain, Chauny, and Cirey employed more than 1,000 persons before the war. 4noi.her industry of importance is the,castiron works at Guise, which turns out 4 000,000 francs' worth of heating apparatus and other articles in cast-iron. Guise and several other places produce steel, copperplate, files, and agricultural implements. Eighty sugar factories in the department produce 80,000 tons of sugar, and other products are paper, candles, boots, and chemicals. ~,. , . ~ Of the 45,000 horse-power utilised m the Department of Aisne, four-fifths arc estimated to have been employed in factories in that portion which was in German occupation. The sucrar refineries, of which there were over 80, employing nearly 15,000 people, have been severely" damaged, and their restoration will be" a serious problem. A French migar refiner who visited Laon states that the sugar refineries were given up, generally speaking, to complete destruction. All sugar mills in the district- of Laon have been stripped of their equipment. At Crepy-on-Laoiniais, which la still intact, the installation in the sugar refinery has been carried off. The structures had even been mined, but orders were given by the Germans before their departure not to blow them up. Doubtless this was because of the 'allied warning ■to them. . St, Quentin was an important industrial centre, not. only of the Department of Aisne, but of France as well. The 'textile industry included numerous mills for combing and carding wool, for spinning cotton, and for the manufacture of embroideries. In each factory the spectacle is the same. Either the destruction is complete, or else the walls remain standing, but with the looms smashed to pieces. Outside are pile.? of scrap-iron, ready to be carried off into Germany. Besides this destruction of industrial plants, hundreds of villages are in ruins; railways, roads, and canals are badly damaged. " The amount of material needed to restore the economic life of the Department of Aisne can hardly be estimated. The textile industry of the invaded regions is 00-operating with' the Comptoir Central d'Achats Industrie!; pour les Regions F.nvabies in the matter of joint purchase and distribution of materials for reconstruction. This is an association formed with the support of the French Government.